Meet Michelle Welton, Independent Living Program Volunteer
Michelle Welton has volunteered for the Impact NW Independent Living Program (ILP) for the last four years. ILP helps foster care youth ages 14-21 gain the skills they need to successfully transition out of foster care and into adulthood.
Michelle Welton went out of town one October during the annual ILP Halloween celebration. She had always led the festivities before, so the other volunteers and staff were a little nervous about how the party would happen without her. But they were in good hands. Michelle prepped everything before she left—she had all the Halloween decorations separated in labeled containers with detailed written instructions about where and how to hang them.
Independent Living Program participants take a cooking class.
The staff didn’t have to put an ounce of thought into it and according to ILP staff member Dana Spears-Talbot, “everything came out beautifully. Michelle is a master at what she does.”
When asked about what she’d like others to know about volunteering, she said “There are so many components of volunteer work that nothing is too small. The youth in the program need instruction and information about everything involved in adulthood, before they turn 21 and age out of services. Anything a volunteer can show or tell them is useful and needed.”
